Express yourself: Writing skills for high school

160 Pages·2007·0.58 MB·english

by  Edith N. Wagner

Express
Yourself
W R I T I N G S K I L L S
F O R H I G H S C H O O L
Edith N. Wagner
NEW YORK
Copyright © 2002 LearningExpress,LLC.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by LearningExpress,LLC,New York.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Wagner,Edith N.
Express yourself:writing skills for high school / by Edith Wagner.
p.cm.
ISBN 1-57685-403-5 (alk.paper)
1.Language arts (Secondary) 2.English language—Composition and exercises.
I.Title.
LB1631 .W23 2002
808'.042'0712—dc21 2001050445
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
ISBN 1-57685-403-5
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Contents
Introduction iv
How to Use this Book v
Section 1:Writing for Information and Understanding 1
Chapter One:The Test Question 3
Chapter Two:The Term Paper Assignment 19
Chapter Three:Everyday Writing 27
Section 2:Writing to Persuade 33
Chapter Four:Thesis Statements and Effective Research 35
Chapter Five:Writing for Persuasive Speaking 53
Chapter Six:Persuasion in Everyday Writing 63
Section 3:Writing to Narrate 71
Chapter Seven:Narratives for Personal Experience 75
Chapter Eight:Narratives for Academic Purposes 85
Chapter Nine:Narratives in Everyday Life 91
Section 4:Writing in Response to Literature 97
Chapter Ten:Writing About Poetry 99
Chapter Eleven:Writing About Prose (Fiction) 113
Chapter Twelve:Writing About Drama 127
Appendix A:Tips for Peer Review 135
Appendix B:Answers and Explanations 141
Introduction
Human beings communicate in four ways.We listen,speak,read,and write.When you were a baby the first
thing you did was listen to the world around you. You recognized voices; you were startled by noises; you
were soothed by music.Then you began to imitate the sounds you heard and you experimented by creating
your own sounds.You learned that crying brought attention,words identified things,and that linking words
together made meaning.Then you learned that symbols on a page held unique meaning,and you learned to
read.The last ofthe four ways you learned to communicate was through writing,and the very formal trans-
ference ofwords to paper was probably initiated in school,as early as kindergarten.
Now,as adults,even though you can say with confidence that you know “how”to listen,speak,read,
and write, you also know that simply knowing how doesn’t mean you always do any one of the four com-
munication strands well.Have you ever “listened”to a lecture and not been able to remember one thing you
heard? Have you ever “read”a page or two and had to read it all over again because you didn’t concentrate?
Have you ever “spoken”and then had to explain something twice because you weren’t clear the first time?
Have you ever “written”an exam or a paper or even a note,to find you needed some serious help making
yourselfunderstood? Ifyou were ever in any ofthese situations,you were not alone.
Effective communication requires skill—just like mastering a sport, playing an instrument, dancing,
cooking,or woodcarving.Communicating well demands that you learn the rules and practice a lot.Now there
are many folks out there who get along just fine with basic communication skills,and this book is not for
them.This book is for those who want to become more effective at communicating their thoughts and ideas,
specifically as writers.
Unlike listening,speaking,and reading,writing is the way we make our thinking visible to the world.
Without committing our ideas to paper,our thinking remains invisible,locked in our heads.This is proba-
bly a good thing ifwe are confused or without information.Who would want to put a foolish,illogical,mis-
informed mind on display for the public? But in today’s world ofhigh stakes testing,writing has become the
one tried and true measure ofyour thinking,and everyone wants to see it.So,ifyou try to avoid writing,this
book is dedicated to you.
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EXPRESS YOURSELF INTRODUCTION
How to Use This Book
“High stakes testing”is a phrase that has been captured in the newspapers and has students, parents, and
teachers very concerned.Simply defined,high stakes tests are those that have very serious consequences.For
example,you are likely to discover that you cannot earn a high school diploma in your state unless you pass
certain exit exams.Without that high school diploma,the doors to higher education are locked;entry to cer-
tain employment is closed;a career in the military might be impossible.What ties high stakes testing to this
book is that all ofthe tests require you to demonstrate your learning by writingwhat you know in complete
sentences.In doing so,you provide a logical pattern oforganization that follows the conventions ofstandard
written English.The days ofthe multiple-choice tests are gone.Testing now wants you to show not just what
you may know but howyou know it and how you can applyyour knowledge and information.In short,today’s
tests demand that you write.
This book is organized around the four major purposes for writing which drive most of the instruc-
tion and all ofthe testing that you experience in high school and college.The four purposes are:
WRITING TO DEMONSTRATE INFORMATION
AND UNDERSTANDING
This type of writing is also called expository writingand it takes the form of your content area term papers
and essays.It’s where you select information and organize it to show that you understand it.An example would
be the social studies essay that asks you to explain the economic,social,and political causes ofthe Civil War.
WRITING TO PERSUADE
This type ofwriting requires that you use information to argue a point and prove it.This kind ofwriting is
often called writing for critical analysisbecause you are asked not only to select appropriate information but
also to use that information to prove a point of view.For example,instead of just explaining the causes of
the Civil War,you might be asked to persuade your reader that the Civil War was more about the econom-
ics ofthe southern plantation system than it was about the social issue ofslavery.
WRITING TO NARRATE A STORY
OR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
This type of writing requires that you tell a story in order to demonstrate information,knowledge,or per-
sonal experience.The same social studies essay would require that you create a series ofjournal entries writ-
ten as a plantation owner in 1859 Georgia to demonstrate the social and economic realities ofthe plantation
system,or to construct a chronological narrative ofa day in the life ofa Confederate soldier.
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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK EXPRESS YOURSELF
WRITING IN RESPONSE TO LITERATURE
This type ofwriting requires that you read and analyze a piece ofliterature in one ofthe four major genres:
poetry,prose fiction,prose non-fiction,and drama.You will be asked to respond to questions about the read-
ing and demonstrate an understanding ofthe text on both a literal and inferential level.Literal questions ask
for specific information found directly in the text;inferential questions require that you explain the implied
meanings and possible interpretations ofthe information in the text.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Each section of this book will take you through a complete analysis of each of these writing tasks,explain-
ing how to:
➨ reada question to determine what kind ofwriting is called for and what the main idea ofyour
answer must be.
This is not as easy as it looks.The following question appeared on a recent high school end-of-course
test in Global History:
The Industrial Revolution brought major social and economic changes to Western Europe
in the nineteenth century.From your study of global history,choose two European nations and
explain how the Industrial Revolution brought both social and economic change to each.
One ofthe first things you might notice is that this isn’t a question at all.Rather,it is a statement offact,
called a prompt,which you must support by offering specific details.The prompt asserts the main idea,in
this case that the Industrial Revolution brought social and economic change to Western Europe.Is this going
to be an essay of information and understanding, persuasion, or narration? If you said, “information and
understanding,”you were correct.The key word in the prompt is explain.You’re being asked to identify the
main idea,choose two countries,and for each one offer details and examples about the social and economic
change brought about by the Industrial Revolution.In short,you’re being asked to show that you understand
the main idea and that you have supporting details to develop it.
Now look at this prompt from a Life Science exam.
Some people claim that certain carnivores should be destroyed because they kill beneficial ani-
mals.Explain why these carnivores should be protected and be sure to include information about the
population growth of their prey, probability of extinction, and the importance of carnivores in the
ecosystem.
Like the prompt about the Industrial Revolution,this is also a statement question.The main idea is that
carnivores should be protected.But unlike the simple statement of fact,this is a statement which contains
the word should.You are being asked to demonstrate your knowledge by using supporting details to persuade
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EXPRESS YOURSELF HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
the reader that carnivores should be protected rather than destroyed. This is a more difficult task because
you must select and evaluate details and data,that will persuade your reader to a certain point ofview.In the
Industrial Revolution essay you do not have to persuade;you simply have to supply the necessary informa-
tion to support the statement.
Now try this question from a United States History and Government course:
Throughout U.S.history,United States Supreme Court cases have dealt with many major issues.
Some major cases are listed below.
Marbury v.Madison (1803)
Korematsu v.United States (1944)
Brown v.Board ofEducation (1954)
Engel v.Vitale (1962)
Miranda v.Arizona (1966)
Roe v.Wade (1973)
Bakke v.University ofCalifornia (1978)
Choose three cases and identify the issue in the case; explain the historical circumstances that led to
the case; state the Court’s decision in the case.
Is this a prompt based on a statement offact or a statement ofpersuasion? Are you being asked to sim-
ply provide facts and details or are you being asked to construct an argument that something should or should
not happen? Ifyou said “statement offact,”you were right.This is a very straightforward question that wants
you to demonstrate knowledge ofspecific information about Supreme Court decisions.
But it could have been written this way:
Throughout U.S.history,the United States Supreme Court has dealt with many major issues.
Choose one ofthe Supreme Court decisions from the following list and explain why you believe it was
good or bad for the country.
Korematsu v.United States (1803)
Brown v.Board ofEducation (1954)
Miranda v.Arizona (1966)
Roe v.Wade (1973)
Bakke v.University ofCalifornia (1978)
Unlike the previous question,this prompt asks you to take a position and prove it.If you recognized
that this was a persuasive essay,you were right on target.
It’s not common that a content-specific examination will require you to write a narrative essay.Narra-
tion is often used in essays ofpersonal experience such as a college placement essay or a generalized writing
test.Narration is easy to spot as a question type because it most often asks you to use “a time”in your life to
support an answer.For example:
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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK EXPRESS YOURSELF
People often learn the most about themselves by the mistakes they make.Describe a time in your
life when you learned from a mistake.
OR
“Problems are opportunities in disguise.”Describe a time when you confronted a problem and
found that it became an opportunity.
Both ofthese are very typical prompts to inspire narrative writing and even though content area assign-
ments could require narrative prose,these would not likely be test questions.However,they still require that
you recognize the controlling idea and then use it as the basis ofyour essay.
As we go through each section of this book, you will be presented with many more opportunities to
evaluate question/prompt types.And then you will be shown how to translate the question/prompt to estab-
lish the main idea ofyour essay.You will learn how to:
➨ writea statement ofpurpose to help you prepare the specific information that you will need to
support the main idea appropriately.
Ifyou have trouble deciding what the main idea ofthe question is,then you are having trouble decid-
ing your purposefor writing.One way to help you start off on the right foot is to write a statement of pur-
pose.It looks like this:
My purpose is to my audience that .
Go back to the question and fill in the blanks.For the first example above about the Industrial Revo-
lution,your statement ofpurpose might look like this:
1. My purpose is to informmy audience that the industrial revolution brought social and economic
changes to two European nations in the nineteenth century.
For the second example about carnivores;
2. My purpose is to persuademy audience that carnivores should be protected.
For the third example about the Supreme Court cases;
3. My purpose is to explainto my audience the issues, historical circumstances, and decisions of the
Supreme Court in these three cases.
For the fourth example about the Supreme Court cases;
4. My purpose is to persuademy audience that one Supreme Court case was either good or bad for
the country.
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EXPRESS YOURSELF HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
You’ll notice that once you have restated the question or prompt in this form,you have written out your
main idea.Then,and only then,are you ready to:
➨ decidethe supporting details,examples,and explanations necessary to support that main idea.
This is the second stage ofplanning your essay where you’ll have to figure out exactly what infor-
mation you need so that you don’t leave anything out.Very often,content-specific essay questions
have more than one part—like the Supreme Court question above or the Industrial Revolution
question.To make sure you don’t omit anything,you should prepare an outline to follow.This
doesn’t have to be a formal outline;it could be a graphic organizer.But you should lay out what’s
required.For example,let’s go back to the Supreme Court case question.
My purpose is to explain three court cases for decision,circumstances,and historical significance.
SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL
CASE DECISION CIRCUMSTANCE SIGNIFICANCE
1.
2.
3.
This is sometimes referred to as “boxing”the question to make sure you cover all the information that
is required.
This visual organizationstrategy is one ofseveral that you’ll be shown in the course ofthis book.Orga-
nizers help you in two ways.First,and probably most important,a visual organizer requires that you iden-
tify the information that you will use in the essay.Ifyou find that you are missing information,you may change
your topic to something about which you are more confident.In the above essay,if you start filling in the
boxes and realize you have a blank box because you are unsure ofthe decision in the Miranda case,then you
might go back to choose another case.
The second way that a graphic organizer helps you is that you get to see the paragraph structure ofyour
essay before you start to write.This will help you make sure that your writing is logical and organized.In the
Supreme Court case essay,the boxing shows that you will need at least three body paragraphs plus an intro-
duction and conclusion for a total offive paragraphs.But ifyou felt that you had a lot to say about each case,
and if you discovered that you filled each box with so much information that each box represented a para-
graph,then this essay could be as many as nine to twelve paragraphs long.See page 141 for a sample essay.
A graphic organizer for the carnivore question might look like this:
POPULATION IMPORTANCE
GROWTH OF TO
CARNIVORE THEIR PREY EXTINCTION ECOSYSTEM
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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK EXPRESS YOURSELF
Once you’ve laid out the chart you can go back and fill it in. You can see clearly what the question
demands.You must identify a specific carnivore on which to base the answer.Then,you must think about
specific data pertaining to its population growth,probability ofextinction,and its importance to the ecosys-
tem.But there is another element to this essay.Remember the word shouldin the question? You must be sure
to include the argument that carnivores should be protected because ofthe information that you have out-
lined as important.
How many paragraphs do you think this essay will need? If you said,“three body paragraphs with an
introduction and conclusion,for a total offive,”you were absolutely right.
As you proceed through the sections of this book you will have several opportunities to practice such
pre-writing organization strategies.All ofthis will lead to the actual writing ofthe essay and tell you specif-
ically how to:
➨ write a thesis statement.Your thesis statement comes directly from your statement ofpurpose.It is a
single sentence that announces your essay’s main idea and organizational pattern.Your thesis state-
ment is the most important part ofyour answer because it establishes for you and your reader exactly
what you will include in the essay and in what order.It is also the first step in your actual writing of
your answer,your rough draft.
A possible thesis statement for the Industrial Revolution question might be:
The Industrial Revolution brought both social and economic change to England and France in
the nineteenth century because it increased the population ofthe cities,increased the number ofchil-
dren working in factories,and expanded foreign trade opportunities for both nations.
By adding the word because,the three main points ofthe essay are established.It is now clear that what
will follow will be how the increased population ofeach city brought social and economic change;how the
increased number of children in factories brought social and economic change;how foreign trade increase
brought social and political change.Each point will require a full paragraph to develop.Add the introduc-
tion and conclusion and you get a five-paragraph essay.
A possible thesis statement for the carnivore essay could be:
Wolves are carnivores in need ofprotection because they control the population oftheir natural
prey,are in danger ofextinction,and support the ecosystem in which they live.
Again,notice the inclusion ofthe becauseclause.It forces you to be specific about what you will include
in your essay.Your job will be to support each ofthe prongs with specific information and supporting details.
In other words,your thesis statement is the main idea ofyour piece,and that will direct the number and kind
ofsupporting data you need to support it.
As you progress through each section ofthis book you will have many opportunities to practice writ-
ing thesis statements.
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EXPRESS YOURSELF HOW TO USE THIS BOOK